Relief for ST Students Aspiring for Medical Seats | Bombay High Court Orders Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) to Give ST Candidates Same Benefits Offered To Other Quota Reserve Category Students

The Bombay high court passed an ad interim order on Tuesday, asking the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) to extend the same concessions to the scheduled tribes (ST) candidates, as are being given to other reserved category students for admission to health science courses.

The order enables several ST candidates, whose applications for caste validity certificates are pending before the Caste Scrutiny Committees (CSCs), to submit their preference forms for health science seats with an undertaking that they will abide by the CSC’s final decision. So far, such concession was available to students from reserved categories other than the ST.

The court’s order is likely to impact the DMER’s ongoing exercise for seat allotment under Round-I of the medical admission process. While the list of such selected candidates is to be released on July 18, the process for submission of preference forms concluded on Tuesday — the day the high court’s order came.

Several ST candidates complained on Tuesday that authorities at the four regional centres, including B J Medical College in Pune, refused to accept their preference forms as they were not in a position to furnish their caste validity certificate. The candidates said their pleas for caste validation were pending before the CSC.

Officiating director of medical education Pravin Shingare told TOI on Wednesday, “The high court’s order will be followed in all respect. Our admissions committee will hold a meeting soon to decide on acceptance of preference forms from those ST candidates, who have applied for caste validity before the CSC. The government’s approval will be sought for the same.”

Reserved category candidates are required to get their caste claim certified by the CSC, a body set up by the respective district administration, while applying for admission to an educational institution. The validation process takes three to four months, even more in some cases, from the date of application. All quota benefits can be availed of only against the certificate validating the caste claim.

On January 11, 2011, the state government issued a circular that struck down an earlier circular of August 30, 2006, which allowed ST candidates to furnish an undertaking, at the time of admission, stating that they would not claim any benefit if the CSC does not validate their caste claim.

Ganesh Thakur, a medical aspirant from Thane district, filed a writ petition in the high court challenging exclusion of the ST candidates from the concession.

The petitioner cited DMER’s information brochure for AY 2011-12, which states that ST candidates failing to submit caste validity certificate at the time of submission of preference form, will be treated as general candidates.

However, incase of candidates from other backward classes such as SC, VJ/DT (A), NT-B, NT-C, NT-D and OBC, a concession has been made by allowing the preference form with an undertaking, the petitioner stated.

A division bench of chief justice Mohit Shah and justice G S Godbole heard the matter on Tuesday and passed an ad interim order granting Thakur’s plea relating to acceptance of the preference form against an undertaking.

In a three-page order, the bench stated, “Having regard to the fact that this issue is likely to arise in case of a large number of students belonging to ST, applying for admission to various educational institutions, we direct the respondents by this ad interim order to give the same concession to the ST students which is given to the other backward class students as indicated in the information brochure issued by the DMER.”

The court also directed notices against the respondent state government, the DMER and the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences. The notices are returnable by July 25 when the next hearing is likely to take place.


Source: Times of India